Thursday, November 21, 2013

Senator Strangelove Finally Does It

I can only hope that Majority Leader Reid considered that one day, when the Democrats are the minority party in the upper chamber, they, too, will need the filibuster for judicial appointees in case a Republican President wants to appoint Orly Taitz or Robert Bork's rotting corpse to a federal bench.
But a couple of hours ago, after a false start last July 16th, Harry Reid used the long-threatened but never-used nuclear option and blew up the filibuster for presidential judicial nominees (save for the Supreme Court). The measure passed along razor-sharp party lines, 52-48. Typically, this has resulted in the usual childish whining from the same right wing nut bags who've blocked nearly seven dozen nominees during Barack Obama's presidency. One of them resulted in the ultimate blowback: Instead of simply letting Elizabeth Warren become head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they blocked her and now she's my senior senator, giving Wall Street and "regulators" dry heaves at the thought of testifying before her.
But the numbers above are clear: Nearly half of all filibustered presidential nominees have come during the 58 months of the Obama administration alone. That comes out to nearly one and a half for every month Mr. Obama has been president. You'd have to be a mathematical Ray Charles to not see the obvious, racist trend and the sheer, unbridled immaturity on the part of the GOP.
What the Republican Party has yet to understand is that the filibuster is like a gun: It can be a useful instrument in the hands of the right person. But if used too much and too recklessly, you can and will have much of your ammo taken away from you.